Contents
U.S. & World News
ALA News
Booklist Online
Denver Update
Division News
Awards
Seen Online
Tech Talk
Publishing
Actions & Answers
Calendar

Early voting taxes library polling places
Record early-voting turnout for the 2008 election may bode well for civic involvement, but libraries across the country that served as early voting sites faced unexpected pressures—and opportunities—providing service to the throngs of early voters coming through their doors. Broward County (Fla.) Libraries may have taken the most extreme step: closing the Davie/Cooper City, Tamarac, and Pompano Beach branches to everyone except early voters from October 30 through November 2. On Election Day, voters lined up around the block at the Boston Public Library, while the wait at the Orange County (Fla.) Library in Orlando was about two hours long. Libraries around the country hosted activities and events to register voters and to educate them on the important election issues....
American Libraries Online, Oct. 31; WBZ-TV, Boston, Nov. 4; Orlando Sentinel, Nov. 4

Voters save borough library in New Jersey
The voters of Jamesburg, New Jersey, decisively defeated a ballot measure November 4 asking for their approval for the town to “discontinue the support, maintenance, and control of the Jamesburg Public Library” (right). In a one-square-mile town with 6,500 residents, the measure was defeated 959–564. What defeated the 2008 measure was a concerted campaign by trustees and library Friends. In addition to yard signs, banners, and media contacts, volunteers canvassed the one-square-mile community....
American Libraries Online, Nov. 5

Harvard unswayed by Google settlement
Voicing its dissatisfaction with the terms of a settlement of lawsuits challenging the Google Book Search project, Harvard University Library will not take part in the program’s scanning of copyright-protected works. One of the original library partners in the project, Harvard plans to continue its policy of only allowing Google to scan books whose copyrights have expired. However, Harvard officials have declared their belief in the project’s legality...
American Libraries Online, Oct. 31

Tuesday in the park with Barack
American Libraries Editor Leonard Kniffel writes: “In the elevator on my way up to the office this morning, I ran into Deidre Ross, and I thanked her for whatever she did as head of ALA Conference Services to bring Barack Obama to the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago in 2005, when his campaign for the presidency was in its infancy. Ross’s prescience led to one of the most rousing Opening General Session speeches I have ever heard. So library-specific, so tailor-made for librarians it was, that we were able to work with Obama to adapt it into the cover story for the August 2005 issue of American Libraries.”...
AL Inside Scoop, Nov. 5

From one president-elect to another
ALA President-elect Camila Alire writes: “Today I woke up with mixed feelings. I went to bed with the ‘Yes, we can’ rallying cry coming from over 100,000 folks in Grant Park in Chicago, Illinois. I woke up this morning to find that in that same state, all 10 library-related referenda failed. There is some good news: The library-related referenda passed in Fulton County, Ga.; New Mexico (first time for tribal libraries); Clackamas County, Oreg.; Walpole and Brockton, Mass.; and Fairfield County, Pa. President-elect Obama’s campaign will be my model for ALA. It was so successful because he enlisted the grassroots of this country to get involved and vote.”...
Camila Alire’s blog, Nov. 5; Illinois Library Association, Nov. 5

Gaming Symposium: Complex games lead to complex thinking
Modern games aren’t trivial, and librarians who dismiss them as such do their patrons a disservice, presenters told some 215 attendees of the second annual ALA TechSource Gaming, Learning, and Libraries Symposium. Held November 2–4 in Oak Brook, Illinois, the event was replete with examples of how the complexity of modern games prepare young people for their futures. The oft-mocked Pokémon series, for example, has more than 500 characters, each falling into one of 17 types that may be particularly strong or weak against other types.”...
American Libraries Online, Nov. 5

More than just a game
Daniel A. Freeman writes: “As I write this from the 2008 ALA TechSource Gaming, Learning, and Libraries Symposium, I can’t help but think how far gaming technology has come since the days of 8-bit graphics and cheap MIDI sound effects. At this symposium, gaming is hardly a game—it’s a rapidly evolving and increasingly important part of our profession. More and more, librarians are using gaming to help students of all ages learn, to help adults improve and hone their skills, and to draw young people into a lifetime of library use. Allan M. Kleiman presented this video (0:57) showing seniors bowling on a Wii.” For more coverage, see AL Inside Scoop....
ALA TechSource blog, Nov. 3; AL Inside Scoop, Nov. 2–4

New survey on diversity, recruitment in library schools
ALA is conducting a new online survey to examine strategies used by library schools to recruit students of color. This survey has been designed to assess strategies employed to recruit students of color, and efforts to foster an educational environment where respect, appreciation, equity, and inclusion are core values. The survey will be electronically distributed to all ALA-accredited and AASL approved/NCATE accredited master’s programs by November 7. Replies are requested by November 24....

Simmons College supports a Spectrum Scholar
The Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Science will provide $5,000 in matching scholarship funds to Steven De’Juan Booth, a 2008 ALA Spectrum Scholarship winner. Booth is pursuing an MLS at Simmons, which has offered matching scholarships to Spectrum recipients in its graduate program in library and information science since 1999....

Five best travel sites for cheap tickets
Adam Pash writes: “Where can you find tickets cheap enough to offset the extra $40 you’ll have to spend to check your bags and enjoy a snack on your six-hour flight? Earlier this week we asked Lifehacker readers to share their favorite travel websites for cheap tickets, and today we’re back with the five most popular answers. Keep reading for a breakdown of the best travel sites.” Also, check out some lesser-known options....
Lifehacker, Nov. 2, 4

Terror at the CELL
“Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere” is an interactive multimedia exhibit aimed at educating the general public about terrorism and terrorist organizations. Hosted by the Center for Empowered Living and Learning at 99 W. 12th Avenue, the exhibit debuted at the Denver Democratic National Convention in August. Visitors can explore various notions about terrorist ideology and aims, as well as the role of media coverage in terrorist activities....
Center for Empowered Living and Learning

Visit the Money Museum
Perhaps America’s favorite collectible, money is the center of attraction at the American Numismatic Association’s Money Museum in Colorado Springs, on the campus of Colorado College. The museum collection consists of over 250,000 objects encompassing the history of numismatics from the earliest invention of money to modern day—paper money, coins, tokens, medals, exonumia, and traditional money from all over the world. “A House Divided: Money of the Civil War” will be a featured exhibit during the Midwinter Meeting in January....
American Numismatic Association

ALSC’s Exceptional Websites for Children
ALSC has added 15 websites this fall to Great Web Sites for Kids, its online resource containing hundreds of commendable links. The site is organized by subject headings such as animals; literature and languages; mathematics and computers; the arts; and history and biography. There is also a special section with sites of interest to parents, caregivers, and teachers, plus an area devoted to sites in Spanish....

ALSC Great Interactive Software for Kids
ALSC has selected its Fall 2008 list of Great Interactive Software for Kids, which recognizes high-quality computer programs and digital media for children 14 years of age and younger. The selected products are: Beep, GollyGee Blocks, LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures (right), Mastering Elementary School, Mastering Elementary and Middle School Math, and Nancy Drew and the Phantom of Venice....

Register for Teen Tech Week
YALSA launched its Teen Tech Week 2009 website November 4, opening registration and offering resources for the annual celebration of nonprint resources. Teen Tech Week is March 8–14, with a theme of “Press Play @ your library,” encouraging teens to take advantage of the many technologies available to them, free of charge, at their libraries....

Melissa De Fino named ALCTS Emerging Leader
Melissa De Fino, special collections catalog librarian at Rutgers University libraries, has been selected as the ALCTS sponsored Emerging Leader for 2008–2009. ALCTS sponsors one Emerging Leader who has chosen technical services as a career....

Web 2.0 in schools: Our digital divides are showing
Marcia Mardis writes: “The findings of the AASL longitudinal study suggest that Web 2.0 tools are gaining popularity in schools across the United States. These tools are enabling forms of communication, collaboration, and learning never seen in K–12 education. This is exciting because it signals the timely, if not prescient, nature of the Standards for the 21st-Century Learner.”...
AASL Blog, Oct. 30

ACRL preconference unconference
As an adjunct to the ACRL National Conference, members of Radical Reference are organizing an unconference on social justice and alternative or radical collections and programs in academic libraries, Thursday, 10 a.m.–2:30 p.m., March 12, at the Good Shepherd Center in Seattle. Contact Radical Reference for more information....
Radical Reference, Oct. 9

Apply for a Google Policy Fellowship
The ALA Washington Office will be participating again in the Google Policy Fellowship program for summer 2009. The first class of fellows worked for 10 weeks last summer at the Washington Office and other public-interest organizations involved in debates on broadband and access policy, content regulation, copyright reform, online privacy, and open government. Master’s and doctoral students in library and information studies with an interest in national public policy can apply for this fellowship. ALA’s one fellow will focus on these issues from the perspective of the library community. Apply by December 12....
District Dispatch, Nov. 4

Enter the 2009 StoryTubes video contest
The 2009 video contest features new partner libraries, new categories that provide opportunities for kindergartners through high school seniors, groups, and people of all ages, new contest dates, and the addition of TeacherTube as a video host to assist organizations that do not enable access to YouTube. Visit StoryTubes.info to watch videos from last year, identify the partner libraries, read the contest rules, and find contact information....
StoryTubes, Oct. 27

NYPL rewards New York City unsung hero
The New York Public Library’s 2008 Brooke Russell Astor Award has been awarded to Rev. Terry Troia, executive director of Project Hospitality, an interfaith program committed to serving the needs of hungry and homeless people. The $10,000 award was established in 1987 and recognizes unsung heroes who have substantially contributed to improving the quality of life in New York City. Troia was nominated for the award by Janet Klucevsek, supervising librarian at the NYPL Port Richmond branch....
New York Public Library, Oct. 28

Whiting Writers’ Awards, 2008
The Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation named 10 recipients October 29 of the 2008 Whiting Writers’ Awards. The awards, $50,000 each, have been given annually since 1985 to writers of exceptional talent and promise in early career. Among them is Manuel Muñoz, the author of two collections of short stories, Zigzagger (Northwestern University Press, 2003) and The Faith Healer of Olive Avenue (Algonquin Books, 2007)....
Whiting Foundation, Oct. 29

Obama mentions 106-year-old library supporter
November 4, for the second time in this election, Ann Nixon Cooper was a part of history. The first time was when the 106-year-old Atlanta woman voted for Barack Obama for president in October. The second was when the candidate she voted for gave her the ultimate shout-out in his election night speech. And she has shared her rich history with the rest of us. The Ann N. Cooper Collection at the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System’s Auburn Avenue Research Library contains items from 1922 to 1956, including a daybook, two scrapbooks, and other personal effects from the Coopers....
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Nov. 5

Arizona librarian loses election to incumbent
Democrat Rebecca Schneider, the overnight manager at Arizona State University’s Hayden Library, lost her race for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in Congressional District 6. The Republican incumbent Jeff Flake took 62% of the vote, Schneider took 35%, and Libertarian Rick Biondi took 3% of the vote....
ASU Web Devil, Nov. 5

Hartford gets task force’s recommendations
A task force formed this summer to study safety and security issues at the main branch of the Hartford (Conn.) Public Library has sent its recommendations to the board of directors. The group was formed following a newspaper investigation that detailed security and public safety problems at the library, including drinking, drug use, and sexual activity in bathrooms; threats made to staff members by library visitors; and the theft of CDs and DVDs. Board President Geraldine Sullivan said November 3 she was pleased with the report....
Hartford (Conn.) Courant, Nov. 4

Book overdue since 1947 nets $250 fee
A library book checked out from an Oklahoma school library in 1947 has turned up in Ohio and was returned, with a $250 check to cover overdue fees. Librarian Betty Niver said the book New Word Analysis: Or, School Etymology of English Derivative Words, by William Swinton (1879), was mailed to Holland Hall school in Tulsa by Martha McCabe Jarrett, who was a high school sophomore when she signed out the book 61 years ago....
Associated Press, Nov. 1; New England Cable News, Nov. 1

Kayaker hopes to keep Wareham library afloat
Former educator and avid outdoorsman Richard Wheeler is kayaking around the waters—up and down the coast and in and out of inlets, bays, and harbors—to raise money for the cash-strapped Wareham (Mass.) Free Library. Wheeler, best known for his 1,500-mile kayak trip in 1991 from Newfoundland to Cape Cod following the migratory route of the extinct great auk, enlisted for this fundraiser after the library budget was reduced 47% to help make up for a town-wide shortfall....
Boston Globe, Nov. 2

Transylvania thieves get a break
A federal judge declined to give additional jail time October 30 to four men serving 87-month sentences for stealing rare books from the Transylvania University Library in Lexington, Kentucky, and tasering a librarian. An appeals court in February said that U.S. District Judge Jennifer Coffman miscalculated the federal sentencing guidelines by not including the cost of all the books that the men tried to steal in the December 2004 heists. But Coffman said the guidelines were no longer mandatory....
Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader, Oct. 30

German libraries hold thousands of looted volumes
Records indicate that Berlin’s Central and Regional Library purchased “more than 40,000 volumes from the private libraries of evacuated Jews” through the City Pawn Office in the 1940s. And, this being Germany, the librarians maintained meticulous record books to keep track of their purchases—even though parts of the German capital were already in ruins. As always, preserving order was paramount. The librarians signed each volume and gave it an accession number, beginning with the letter J. No one knows how many stolen books are still on the shelves in German libraries today, although experts, like historian Görz Aly, estimate that there are at least one million....
Der Spiegel, Oct. 24

What an Obama presidency means for technology
Declan McCullagh writes: “When Barack Obama becomes president in January with a strongly Democratic Congress, he’ll have the chance to push a technology policy that relies more on government subsidy and regulation than that of his immediate predecessor. In Washington and Silicon Valley circles, betting has already begun on who will be the nation’s first Chief Technology Officer. Could it be Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who conveniently endorsed Obama? Or Vint Cerf? If there’s an opening for a Beltway type, perhaps ex-regulator Reed Hundt, who’s been a proxy for the president-elect?”...
CNET News, Nov. 5

10 election tweets worth remembering
Caroline McCarthy writes: “It was a marathon evening for media buffs as Barack Obama beat rival John McCain to become the first U.S. African-American president-elect. You couldn’t miss it on Twitter, as the microblogging service exploded with election updates, commentary, and speculation. Miraculously, Twitter’s servers lasted the night, and had quite a lot of terrific, 140-characters-long election commentary (in messages known as ‘tweets’) to serve up for hungry news hounds. Here are 10 of CNET News’ favorites.”...
CNET News, Nov. 5

Sneaky fees: 7 new ways you’ll be paying more
J. R. Raphael writes: “It’s no secret that the faltering economy is taking its toll on the tech world. You may not have noticed, though, how often your wallet has been hit with sneaky fees as a result. We’ve identified seven recently introduced surcharges on tech-related products—add-ons that vendors aren’t exactly trumpeting. Ready to see where companies are hiding the new fees?”...
PC World, Oct. 28

Blog search engines: An overview
Ann Smarty writes: “Blog search tools are numerous; most of them are pretty much useless (per my opinion). Here I am looking only at the most helpful ones that I do recommend trying and that offer some great features: Google Blog Search, Technorati, Blog Pulse, and Blog Lines.”...
Search Engine Journal, Oct. 24

Mr. President-elect, start reading
Garry Wills and Aleksandar Hemon offer some recommendations for Barack Obama to put on his reading list, because even if he has already read these titles, “it is good to refresh the message of each, to show where we have been going wrong.” At the top of the list is Jane Mayer’s The Dark Side: “If Mark Twain said at one time that America had become the United States of Lyncherdom, this book shows why, in the world’s eyes, we have become the United States of Torturedom.”...
Chicago Tribune, Nov. 1

Science fiction that caused political change
Lauren Davis writes: “Ronald Reagan, Winston Churchill, and Eugene Debs all had one thing in common: They were fans of science fiction. More than that, they all used sci-fi at one point or another to shape their political actions and views. From presidents and prime ministers to ordinary citizens looking for change, many people have turned to science fiction as their political guide. We look at some of the ways space operas, utopias, and aliens have shaped our political landscape and given us hope for a more futuristic tomorrow.”...
io9, Nov. 4

Amazon’s Kindle: A five-day review
Scott Douglas writes: “I’m going to spend the next week giving an overview of basically every Kindle future. I think at the right price it will be in the hands of every book reader (or even web reader) in the very near feature. Today, I’ll go over the overall look and feel of the device; over the next couple days, I’ll show you what the free internet looks like (yes, free), and some of the other less talked about features. When I turned the Kindle on for the first time, it looked fake—I didn’t think words could ever be so clear on something. It’s just like words in a book. When I took it outside there was absolutely no glare.”...
Speak Quietly, Oct. 27–31

“We Shall Remain” to premiere in April
In April, PBS American Experience will feature “We Shall Remain,” a miniseries and multimedia project that establishes native history as an essential part of American history. Five 90-minute documentaries spanning 300 years tell the story of pivotal moments in U.S. history from the Native American perspective. ALA Past President Loriene Roy served as a consultant. Visit the website to download a library event kit that offers programming ideas and resources to help libraries deliver engaging events leading up to, during, and after the broadcast....
American Experience

November is Native American Heritage Month
The Library of Congress, the National Museum of the American Indian, the Indian Health Service, the Smithsonian, the National Register of Historic Places, and other organizations are paying tribute in November to the rich ancestry and traditions of American Indians and Alaska Natives. Native American activist, journalist, and poet Suzan Shown Harjo will deliver the keynote address November 13 for LC’s celebration. The LC website also points to teaching resources and digital collections useful for instruction....
Library of Congress

Making news social
Linda Braun writes: “Today is definitely a big news day in the United States. I’ve been thinking about how teens find out about news and how librarians might help them to be more successful at news gathering. What I’m realizing is that Social Median might be the perfect Web 2.0 site to use for this purpose. Social Median is a social news site that gives users the chance to join networks on a particular topic, say election 2008, and read news stories (that members of the network post) on that topic.”...
YALSA Blog, Nov. 4

Copyright status and the Google agreement
Karen Coyle writes: “Among the many interesting bits in the Google/AAP agreement is Section E (PDF file) which essentially lays out in detail what steps Google must take to determine if an item is or is not in the public domain. As we know, this is not easy. I decided to try this out. What I found was that just because Google determines that a book is in the public domain doesn’t mean that’s the legal status of the book. It also means that the rest of us can’t use the excuse: ‘But Google says it’s in the public domain.’”...
Coyle’s InFormation, Nov. 3

Best place to meet someone you’d take home to mom
The Eugene (Oreg.) Public Library won first place in the reader-selected “Best of Eugene 2008–2009” poll in two categories—best public space, and best place to meet someone you’d take home to mom: “The gorgeously housed Eugene Public Library contains more knowledge in book, CD, DVD, video, audio, Braille, and other formats—including those human search engines, reference librarians—than anyone could encompass. This means you’ve got plenty of opportunities to meet cute, from winking across the room during toddler story time, to banging heads as you go for the microfilm of that 1982 issue of Commonweal, or competing for the same episodes of Six Feet Under.”...
Eugene (Oreg.) Weekly, Oct. 30

Neil Armstrong donates papers to Purdue
The personal story of the first person to land a craft on the moon and to step on its surface will live forever—in the Purdue University Libraries, West Lafayette, Indiana. Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong will give his alma mater personal papers that will serve as historic archives and scholarly resources, Purdue President France A. Córdova announced November 1. Dean of Libraries James L. Mullins said the papers will be housed in Archives and Special Collections, where the Amelia Earhart papers reside....
Purdue University, Nov. 1

Special collections reach out to undergrads
Rare books and manuscripts, once restricted to scholars and graduate students in white gloves, are being incorporated into undergraduate courses at institutions like the University of Iowa, Smith College, the University of Washington, and Harvard. Last academic year, almost 200 classes and student tours visited the rare-books collection of the University of Pennsylvania. Students today often blindly grant authority to the online world. Curators want to reconnect them with original sources and teach them to question those sources....
New York Times, Oct. 30

Harvard: It’s in the cards
Matthew Reidsma writes: “Until the 18th century, when French revolutionaries took inventories of libraries on the backs of confiscated playing cards, library catalogs were merely lists written or printed in books. But as book production dramatically increased, libraries looked for a more expandable way to organize their holdings. The Harvard Library’s answer to this problem, the card catalog, became the standard way to access library materials throughout the world for more than a century.”...
Et Seq., Oct. 27

How to search for rare books on eBay
S. P. Wurth writes: “We want to narrow down and sort out what appears on your eBay search page, and we want to change the look of that search page. I will show you what I do—you can adapt it easily to fit your book collecting goals. The process I describe here will reduce 101,809 books on 1,114 pages to 299 books on 3 pages. Those are the books that I want to look at.”...
Collectible Book Blog, Nov. 3

Bookshelves of the rich and famous
In these economically uncertain times, it’s tempting to daydream. What if you had unlimited funds? What treasures would you add to your bookshelf? If you answered “Ptolemy’s first Atlas printed in Germany, from 10 years before Columbus sailed the ocean blue” (Cosmographia), you’d be in for a bargain at a cool $1.8 million. A first edition of Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon (right), on the other hand, might only run $175,000....
Abebooks

Webinar on why public libraries close
WebJunction is hosting a webinar November 13 (12 noon Pacific Time, 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time), with Christie M. Koontz, Dean K. Jue, and Bradley Wade Bishop, the principal investigators of the study Why Public Libraries Close. This webinar is the kickoff to WebJunction’s winter focus on economic tough times. Register online....
BlogJunction, Oct. 30

Innovative libraries overseas
Marshall Breeding writes: “I’ve been extremely fortunate over the last few years to have had the opportunity to travel to many different parts of the world and speak and work with librarians in many countries. It has been great to have the chance to see first-hand some incredible libraries that demonstrate creative approaches to library services, innovative uses of technology, expansive resource sharing, and pragmatic approaches to library automation. In my experience, many of the libraries that most push beyond the traditional boundaries can be found in other parts of the world. Let me give you a quick tour.”...
Computers in Libraries 28, no. 10 (Nov./Dec.)

The tragedy of Louvain
For a library to be destroyed twice by acts of war is almost unthinkable. Yet that was the case with the University of Louvain library in Belgium, destroyed in both World War I and II. In 1943–1944, the U.S. Post Office issued a series of stamps honoring countries that were overrun by Germany and Japan. Above is a First Day Cover for the stamp issued to honor Belgium, featuring an illustration of the burning of the University of Louvain library....
Library History Buff, Nov. 1; Burning Books blog, Aug. 21

Archives of Dissent
“Archives of Dissent” was one of a week-long series of Bay Area events in September, held under the auspices of the Global Commons Foundation, that commemorated the worldwide upheavals of 1968, their impact, and legacy. The event (1:58:58) brought together librarians, curators, oral historians, conservators, publishers, booksellers, and others working to prevent the loss and erasure of radical voices, events, and movements of both the past and the present. Speakers included Julie Herrada (above), Labadie Collection librarian at the University of Michigan; Kalim Smith, Berkeley doctoral student in anthropology; and Megan Shaw Prelinger and Rick Prelinger, cofounders of the Prelinger Library....
YouTube, Oct. 14

Searching for the truth in Iraq?
Iraqi National Librarian Saad Eskander writes: In 2007, “the Pentagon issued an announcement that called upon American universities to submit social-science research proposals to its Minerva Research Initiative. Under its Iraqi Perspectives Project, the Pentagon will allow access to its collections of seized Iraqi records. This essay approaches the issue of the use and abuse of the seized Iraqi records from legal, academic, moral, and sociopolitical perspectives.”...
Social Science Research Council, Oct. 29

ALA Midwinter Meeting, Denver, January 23–28. Locate Midwinter exhibitors with this Online Exhibitor Planner. Booth and author events in the exhibit hall are listed in the Midwinter wiki.

Richard Rubin, chair of the ALA Committee on Accreditation, discusses trends affecting the broader aspects of accreditation in higher education, in the Fall edition of Prism, the ALA Office for Accreditation newsletter.